‘Trap’ (review)

30,000 fans. 300 cops. 1 serial killer. No escape.

Such states the tagline of M. Night Shyamalan’s latest effort, a playful thriller telling the story of Josh Hartnett’s Cooper – your average suburban dad who also happens to be a serial killer known as the Butcher – who is trying to evade authorities while treating his teenage daughter to a concert with her favorite singer.

As the probability of his potential capture begins to dawn on Cooper, he seeks out increasingly intricate ways to stay ahead of the FBI’s attempts to locate and capture him, resulting in a darkly funny film that balances comedy and suspense with surprising ease, as Cooper’s efforts to escape become increasingly unhinged and absurd.

Describing it as Silence of the Lambs set in the middle of a Taylor Swift concert, Shyamalan utilizes his best Hitchcockian filmmaking prowess to create a film that not only makes a comedic spectacle out of an unusual setting for a thriller about a serial killer being hunted by the FBI, but also examines the balance between Cooper’s commitments as a father juxtaposed against his commitment to his evil deeds.

The line between his two lives increasingly blur as the film goes on, and by the end, the comedy of his balancing act dissipates in favor of more traditional suspense, as he realizes he is running out of ways to escape and keep his two lives separate.

Hartnett delivers a pitch perfect performance where he effortlessly switches between dopey dad and menacing monster, all of which is executed with such ease that the comedy of possessing such clashing personality traits flows surprisingly well, which in turn makes his performance that much more unsettling as a whole.

This central performance makes the film highly engaging, and while the marketing has been more upfront about the nature of Shyamalan’s characters in Trap than one would usually expect from a filmmaker synonymous with big plot twists, there is still a consistent undercurrent of uncertainty to how exactly everything will play out as the story unfolds.

Where some may find the film loses some of its appeal in the final act, as it goes for a more straightforward thriller approach that is less interesting, this nonetheless underlines the unravelling of Hartnett’s character and his increasing inability to hide the monster within, and others in turn may simply find the overall concept of a comedy thriller too strange to even want to engage with the film in the first place.

For those who like their humor dark, however, Trap is undoubtedly a lot of farfetched fun, and while it may not be Shyamalan’s best work, the film’s premise is sold by a lead actor who uses the full gambit of his range to create a wackily unnerving performance in an unusual setting that allows just enough unpredictability to keep the audience invested for the majority of the film’s runtime.

Verdict: 8 out of 10.

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Produced by Ashwin Rajan, Marc Bienstock, M. Night Shyamalan
Written and Directed by M. Night Shyamalan
Starring Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue,
Saleka Night Shyamalan, Hayley Mills, Alison Pill